This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Utah officials blame lack of logging for wildfire that forced 1,500 to evacuate

Stiff winds and hot temperatures have made the Utah blaze the largest in the nation at 201 square kilometres.

By Brady McCombsThe Associated Press

Tues., June 27, 2017

SALT LAKE CITY—Insisting that logging could have cleaned up dead, bug-infested trees that are fuelling a Utah wildfire, a Republican state lawmaker blamed federal mismanagement and lawsuits by “tree hugger” environmentalists for the blaze that has burned 13 homes and forced the evacuation of 1,500 people.

A conservation group called that contention “shameful” and misleading, saying it fails to take into account climate change and drought.

In addition, a U.S. Forest Service researcher said logging probably would not have made a big difference in the high-altitude fire that is sending embers from tree-to-tree over long distances — normal for the ecosystem.

People remove travel trailers down highway 143 from their homes that have been evacuated due to a wildfire on Sunday outside Panguitch. (George Frey/GETTY IMAGES)

Utah state Rep. Mike Noel said Tuesday he wants to use the fire near the ski town of Brian Head and a popular fishing lake to highlight the imbalance of power afforded environmental groups under previous presidents and to ease bureaucratic and legal blockades for logging companies. He believes the Trump administration will provide a more receptive audience for his plea.

Article Continued Below

The blaze is one of several in the West. Crews in California were making gains against two new fires that spread quickly, and firefighters in Idaho battled five lightning-sparked wildfires burning in grass and brush.

A tin roof and a chimney are left in the remains of a house after a wildfire moved through the area on Sunday outside Panguitch, Utah. The fire named the "Brian Head Fire" started last week and has burned more than 17,400 hectares and destroyed 13 homes as of June 25th. (George Frey / GETTY IMAGES)

Crews dealt with windy conditions as they battled a Northern Arizona wildfire that has burned nearly 18 square kilometres.

Authorities say the Utah fire started on June 17 by someone using a torch tool to burn weeds on private land.

Noel contends it wouldn’t have spread as fast if federal forest lands had been cleared of dead trees.

A video of his Monday rant against environmentalists generated social media buzz and sparked new debate about whether logging could help prevent Western wildfires. He joined several other state and county officials in speaking out.

“When we turn the Forest Service over to the bird and bunny lovers and the tree huggers and the rock lickers, we’ve turned our history over,” Noel said. “We are going to lose our wildlife and we are going to lose our scenery, the very thing you people wanted to try to protect. It’s just plain stupidity.”

Firefighters prepare to move into the wods to fight the wildfire that is burning on Sunday. Some flames reached as high as 100 feet. (George Frey/GETTY IMAGES)

Mark Finney, a researcher at the U.S. Forest Service Fire Science Laboratory in Missoula, Montana, said getting rid of the dead trees in the Brian Head area probably would not have made much difference. The trees died years ago, making irrelevant a 2011 U.S. Forest Service study that found the needles of beetle-killed trees ignite three times faster and burn more intensely than healthy trees.

Steve Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said Noel’s assertion is an oversimplification of wildfires that are the result of fire suppression, climate change, drought and unpredictable winds.

“It’s shameful that Rep. Noel has chosen to exploit the fire and mislead the public by saying that conservationists are to blame for this event,” Bloch said.

A wildfire burns through trees and ground cover on Sunday outside Panguitch. The nation’s largest wildfire has forced more than 1,500 people from their homes and cabins in a southern Utah mountain area. (George Frey/GETTY IMAGES)

Stiff winds and hot temperatures have made the Utah blaze the largest in the nation at 201 square kilometres. The estimated cost of fighting the blaze has reached $14.5 million.

Jason Curry of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, said logging or controlled burns in the state’s forests would help get rid of timber that serves as easy fuel for the blazes. But he also acknowledged that drought and climate play a role.

U.S. Forest Service officials and Utah state officials didn’t immediately have information about logging requests in the area.

In California, a wildfire burns on a hillside near the Carquinez Bridge Toll Plaza on June 22 in Vallejo. Firefighters have reported that "multiple" homes are burning and others are at risk as they battle a 4-alarm grass fire in Vallejo. (courtesy of KTVU-TV/AP)

Finney said logging companies generally can’t make money in operations at high elevations because the trees don’t grow back quickly enough and logistics are difficult.

Bloch said his group hasn’t challenged logging in the area of the Utah fire in two decades. But Noel says the lawsuit in the early 1990s delayed a Forest Service plan to get rid of an emerging cluster of bark beetles before it spread.

Chad Hanson, co-founder the John Muir Project, co-authored a 2009 study that was one of the first to dispute the theory that bug-infested trees burn faster.

“That’s just logging industry propaganda,” Hanson said. “This is a direct outgrowth of the rhetoric of fear and hate coming out of the Trump administration. It has emboldened some very anti-environmental voices.”

Delivered dailyThe Morning Headlines Newsletter

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com